Can anyone help me? I'm looking for a portable recorder for collecting samples. One shots as well as ambient sounds. Want something that I can carry with me most of the time, nothing big or heavy, just a decent quality recorder with reasonable battery life and good level or memory, or SD card.

Having read a few too many reviews I know less now than I did before. So far the list is as follows:

Zoom H4n ProTascam DR-40Roland R-07

All these have 5, 3 and sometimes 2 star reviews so I'm at a loss. Any thoughts? I'm open to anything, doesn't need to be one of the above.

My Zoom H2N is always in my bag. My favorite feature imho: M/S recording.Any of the one you've mentioned will perfectly work, but keep in mind that this kind of equipment won't work very well for very subtle ambience recordings as the mics and preamps aren't good enough for this. Otherwise these portable and affordable recorders are incredibly powerful. I'd say define your maximum budget and pick the one that has the most appealing set of features from your point of view.

Zoom is great quality for the cost. I have a Zoom H4n and use to use it a lot tho I pair it up with a SoundDevices MixPre and Rode NT4 stereo mic or NTG6 shotgun.

The Zoom H6 is a step up and has different mic modules that can be installed and something I would love to upgrade too. It is important to have different mics if you plan on recording different sound sources. 1 shots like a loud hit or gun shot etc do better with having a mono mic where ambient sounds benefit from an X/Y mic. Decent shotguns can be used to get some sounds where there is ambient noise you do not want. Also, a wind shield and vibration isolator is important. Get a proper "dead cat" styled wind protector over the cheap foam slip ons because a small amount of wind can ruin an otherwise great recording and always monitor what you record as it makes you look very cool in public!

If you are going to wander around strange areas hunting for sounds I would also recommend a high-vis vest and some kind of printed ID card. I have one on a lanyard with my business details which not only makes you look professional but does help defuse the frequent stops you get from police and security personnel.

I use a Roe iXY with my iPhone, I find it's a lot more discreet and draws less attention. Sounds great too, only downside is that it only works at 48k.

the Rode i-XY will record 24-bit @ 96 kHz if you use one of Rode's recording apps.

btw, is it possible to connect the i-XY with a case on your phone?

Sadly the Rode app is a bit flakey as it hasn't been getting much support, so I just use Audioshare to record in (makes it easy to transfer to other apps). I use the iXY without the little gripper attachment thingie if I'm using my case on my phone. Works fine, just don't bang it around obviously.

The big selling point in a smart phone solution is that most of us always have it with us. Heck, half the found sounds in my songs are captured with just my iPhone's built in mic totally spur of the moment. The times I want a bit more clarity, the iXY is nice and small to put in my pocket.